Risk is back baby! Risk and fear! News that China has cooled more than expected has set the cat amongst the pigeons . Maybe the Emperor has no clothes after all! The Dow has tumbled in the last two days losing nearly 350 points as the Taper takes its toll on those thriving emerging markets as the free money starts to slow…the US needed some pretty good earnings to sustain the sky high market…everyone was long and then someone yelled fire…exits clog pretty quick with the amount of leverage that is in the system at the moment..the Fear Index or VIX leapt from low 12 to mid 17s last week as the punters ran for the hills…FOMC meeting this week is the focus…

Expect to see our market get clobbered..SPI was only down 71 but that seems to be the most unreliable guide around these days…should be worse than that at its nadir before some stability creeps in but Apple numbers will not help the situation…Gold held up pretty well and so did Iron Ore so there may be some respite in the resources but expect some profit taking in the banks for sure..and they are 27% of the market…where will it end…think we may see 5100 or below but it gets attractive enough for the brave…many of the big hitters are only coming back to work today so will take a couple of days before they decide which way to jump….Is this the end…beautiful end..who knows, suspect not..with interest rates this low and World growth still pretty patchy to say the least then I don’t think rates will be rising too much too quickly..and so equities will remain the investment of choice when the dust settles…

Idea of the Day

Things to make me go mmmmmm!!

Sales of new U.S. homes dropped more than forecast in December as cold weather helped put a chill on an industry at the end of its best year since 2008.Purchases decreased 7 percent to a 414,000 annualized pace, lower than any estimate

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 41.23 points, or 0.3 percent, to 15,837.88. Both gauges closed at the lowest levels since mid-December. About 8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 30 percent more than the three-month average.

The Bundesbank said on Monday that countries about to go bankrupt should draw on the private wealth of their citizens through a one-off capital levy before asking other states for help. Nice…good plan!!

Apple has reported and have missed their iPhones sales targets.. as the company only sold 51 million iPhones in the quarter of the 5S release, compared to expectations of 54.7 million. Additionally, Apple also guided to lower revenues than the street had expected, and is now seeing $42-44 billion in the next quarter compared to consensus estimates of $46.1 billion. Stock is down 5% after hours..not good news for the flying high tech sector…

Woodside Petroleum’s Japanese partner in its proposed $40 billion Browse liquefied natural gas project has strongly backed the Australian company’s ambitions to rework the venture as a floating LNG project, despite having cancelled a multibillion dollar contract to buy gas from the venture.

SPCA may split cabinet on bailouts, Simmering tensions within the federal government over taxpayer-funded industry assistance are set to be tested this week as cabinet prepares to discuss a bailout for the struggling Victorian fruit cannery SPC Ardmona, reports The Australian Financial Review.

Caterpillar 2014 profit, sales forecasts beat ests….positive sign..one of the few..did help the Dow a bit…

Was this the reason the US got out of Iraq so they could sell them weapons… “The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress today of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq for AH-64E APACHE LONGBOW Attack Helicopters and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $4.8 billion.” War! ..what is it good for… absolutely arms deals! Say it again!!

France has a record high number of unemployed…3.303m people now…increased for 30 out of the past 32 months…some recovery n’est pas?

The revisions for earnings growth in Zombieland…down from 9% outlook to now a big fat zero!!!!So who stole the recovery…someone tell them in Davos it didn’t work!!!

And from the UK ,The Royal Bank of Scotland is about to announce a shocking result…big write offs again…$5bn of losses..biggest since 2008!!!

There are a few worrying signs around the World for instability…Thailand…Ukrainian currency crisis…Turkish currency crisis…Argentinian crisis as prices soar as inflation calculated to be twice official estimates of 12% in 2013….

Risk is back, people…Gold mints cannot keep up with the demand…Think we may see the Gold prices increase over time…even the US has moved on Bitcon dealers!!!

Gotta love the Kiwis..man gets biten by a Shark..fights it off with his bare hands…stitches his leg and then goes to the pub…they breed them tough there…must have been on a promise….

And finally……

A couple go for a meal at a Chinese restaurant and order the Chicken Surprise.

The waiter brings the meal, served in a lidded cast iron pot.

Just as the wife is about to serve herself, the lid of the pot rises slightly and she briefly sees two beady little eyes looking around before the lid slams back down.

Good grief, did you see that? she asks her husband.

He hadn’t, so she asks him to look in the pot. He reaches for it and again the lid rises, and he sees two little eyes looking around before it slams down.

Rather perturbed, he calls the waiter over, explains what is happening, and demands an explanation.

“Please sir”, says the waiter, “what you order?”

The husband replies, “Chicken Surprise.”

“Ah! So sorry”, says the waiter. “I bring you peeking duck!”

And just to cheer you up if you are coming back to the grind today…..

A BLONDE JOKE THAT YOU’VE NEVER HEARD BEFORE

After becoming very frustrated with the attitude of one of the shopkeepers, the young blonde declared, ‘Well, then, maybe I’ll just go out and catch my own alligator and get a pair of alligator shoes for free!’

The shopkeeper replied with a sly smile,’Well, little lady, why don’t you go give it a try?’

The blonde headed off to the swamp, determined to catch an alligator.

Later in the day, the shopkeeper was driving home, and spotted the

young woman standing waist deep in the murky water, shotgun in hand.

He saw a huge 9-foot gator swimming rapidly toward her.

With lightning reflexes, the blonde took aim, shot the creature and hauled it up onto the slippery bank.

Nearby were 7 more dead gators all lying belly up. The shopkeeper watched in amazement as the blonde struggled with the gator.

Then, rolling her eyes, she screamed in frustration…..

Sonofabitch!! THIS ONE’S BAREFOOT, TOO!

Have a great Monday(No Tuesday) all confused now!!

Clarence

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